powerHouse Books special acquisitions detail secures internet phenomenon DOWN IN THE HOLE in a flurry of negotiations. Placed on a crash schedule, the book is due to hit bookstores in Fall 2011, months before the 10th Anniversary of the debut of the critically acclaimed HBO series, The Wire.

The Baltimore Sun writes: "...[This] Quintessentially Victorian Vision of Ogden's 'The Wire...is a scintillating piece of faux-scholarship. It's set in an alternate universe where the HBO series doesn't exist - and where "The Wire" in any form, including Horatio Bucklesby Ogden's, has yet to be discovered."

Gawker asks: "So, how long before we can actually buy this illustrated version of The Wire? I'd put it on my Amazon wish list now if I could."

Down in the Hole: the unWired World of H.B. Ogden is a collection of excerpts and illustrations from The Wire, a Victorian serial novel. These excerpts are knit together by the history of the novel, its author, and the adventures of the scholars who uncovered this forgotten text.

Difficult. Tangled. Funny, dark, and, once, almost forgotten. The Wire, Horatio B. Ogden's novel about the crime-ridden streets of "Bodymore" was recently brought back to public light through the work of Joy DeLyria and Sean Michael Robinson. In March, 2011 DeLyria and Robinson released a reappraisal of the work, accompanied by a brief excerpt and illustrations. They continue this reappraisal in a book, Down In The Hole, to be published by powerHouse Books this fall. "We were surprised and gratified by the reaction to the article," said Joy DeLyria. "Who knew there was such an audience for unknown Victorian-era serial fiction, especially in this junk culture of spin-offs, sequels and tired retreads."

DeLyria and Robinson have unearthed a wealth of primary sources relating The Wire and its creator, including one of the only extant copies of The Wire's five-volume publication. They have also painstakingly restored the existing prints of the copperplate etchings of Baxter "Bubz" Black, whose grimy, earthy illustrations lent the environment of The Wire another layer of social commentary. Down in the Hole breathes new life into this literary classic, giving us once again a well-loved story, while at the same time illuminating the tumultuous life of its creator, the searing commentary of contemporaries, the difficulties of the Victorian Age, and the reason works like this may be forgotten, but never lost.

Click the image below for an additional excerpt from: "Mission Accomplished", first published December 19, 1848: